Martin Dreams: One Small Step

Weren't you like level 7 in Savage Empire?

My adventure on Mars began the same way most of my travels through the Ultima series begin: wrapping my brain around the control scheme and figuring out what the heck I have to work with. That was a relatively simple affair as far as Martian Dreams was concerned. It didn't take very long at all to slip back into the groove of the Ultima VI engine (though it did take me a while to remember that it's B and not C that switches in and out of combat mode). There wasn't that much in my inventory to take stock of either, mainly clothing that was already equipped, a pocketwatch, and Nellie Bly's pistol. I also took a moment to take a peek at my little band's stats, and already found myself with one improvement over Savage Empire: Aric was my most highly experienced character, and even he had some room for growth. One of my complaints about Savage Empire was how little development it felt my characters were experiencing over the course of the game - here in Martian Dreams, there's lots of space for improvement. I'm still a little wary over carrying capacity and inventory concerns perhaps making the actual stat growth choices... less of one (does intelligence even have a use in this game, since there's no magic?) but that's a bridge I'll cross when I get to it. In any case, I suspect the possibility of more frequent levels, even if it just ends up being extra HP and a point of strength, will help alleviate the problems I had in the previous game of that nature.

Now that I had an idea of the characters I'd be bringing along with me on this excursion, it was time to... well, get an idea of the characters I'd be bringing along with me. (Ah, language. Gotta love the multiple ways certain turns of phrase can be interpreted.) I had a sense of what I might be able to expect from them gameplay-wise, so I next took a moment to get a sense of who they were. Spector assured me of his desire and ability to assist - and asserted it was his job to keep the Avatar out of trouble - before remarking once more upon the differences between what modern science said of Mars compared to their current experience of the Red Planet. Nellie Bly told me a little bit about herself, speaking of her experience as a journalist, her chosen pen name, and the notes she would take about the expedition. It seems she'll fulfill a similar role to Jimmy in Savage Empire, in effect functioning as a walking, talking quest log. This is something I do appreciate about the Worlds of Ultima games, in essence keeping track of at least the highlights of important plot points right there in game. Makes it easy for a quick reminder of what the player maybe should be doing right about now without drowning them in detail. I feel like with the sheer amount of content and sidequests and detail in modern games, it can be a bit difficult to parse a quest log for the immediately important bits, and the simple approach used here feels like a good way to go about it - keep track of the Big Relevant Plot Things, and leave whatever else the player chooses to pursue to their own recollections.

What's steampunk without Jules Verne?

I also took some time to talk with the rest of the crew, such as it was. Freud discusses his research into dreams and his theories on the construction of personality, and also expressed his interest in how everyone was going to react to the situation on Mars - such would prove valuable data for his research, he suspected. Dr. Blood talked about his research into oxygenated air and his concerns about the lower oxygen content in the atmosphere on Mars. It was Tesla who perhaps has the most helpful direction. He gave us the coordinates for the 1893 landing site and pointed us in the right direction. He also noted the door had apparently jammed closed, and that Garrett was the man to see about that. Garrett did indeed have a prybar on hand, though he suggested we go through the cargo hold to gear up before heading out. Both Tesla and Garrett also stressed the importance of having a sextant on hand in order to navigate the surface of the planet. Seeing the wisdom in this course of action, we moved on to raid the capsule's stores of supplies. Apart from a few things like dinnerware and reading material (I love the fact someone brought a copy of Journey to the Center of the Earth along), Aric and his team found plenty of useful things. Tools, weapons, warm clothing, a tent, lanterns and oil - we took them all. After arming Spector with a rifle and Nellie with a pistol, Aric took a saber and machete for himself, then prepared to take one small step for an Avatar and a giant leap for Victorian science--

--only to be stopped by Tesla and the copy protection question.

The structure of this entire opening put me very much in mind of Ultima VI, in a good way - an enclosed space to take stock of the situation, prepare for the trip ahead, and get a sense of what direction to head first. It's all even locked off the rest of the game world until you obtain a certain item within the designated area and pass the copy protection. The main difference is that the space capsule here is a lot smaller than Lord British's castle!

One other detail I enjoyed about this first little area: the crew will readily give their opinions on everyone else, and they're varied. For instance, Tesla is eager to speak with Freud about his dreams, interested in what the psychologist has to say, whereas Garrett is skeptical of Freud and things he asks too many questions. Characterization is as much defined by relationships as it is to an individual's character traits, so it's nice to see the "crew" of the expedition taking the time to say what they think about each other. Really helps get a sense of what sort of team this is.

Gotta include the drama shot!

Anyway, after another admonition from Blood to find some way to deal with the oxygen situation, we set forth to find the landing site from the mishap in 1893 that necessitated this whole rescue in the first place. It was a rather uneventful journey, being a fairly easy walk to the east. We only encountered a couple creepers along the way, which were swiftly dispatched without difficulty. Upon reaching the site, we met with one Lieutenant Dibbs, who had been working security for the capsule when it fired. He had been waiting for the rescue party, and had much to tell us of what had happened in the intervening time. It seemed that the previous group had been working on building a capsule to make the return trip, but needed to find more iron for the steel necessary to build it. They split into four groups, each seeming to take their own tack on the situation. Rasputin took a group to Argyre to research the Martian technology there, and they became secretive and reclusive. It was clear Dibbs did not trust them much. Lowell took a group north to Elysium, experimenting with the Dream Machine they found there. According to Dibbs, there were several around Mars, though only Elysium's seemed to work - and Lowell's group went mad as a result, now believing themselves Maritans. This led the group led by Jack Segal to become skeptical of those potentially "contaminated" by the machines. They remained at Olympus to work on the shuttle, and effectively closed themselves off from anyone who may have come into contact with the active Dream Machine. 

Dibbs suggested we visit the fourth group, the traders Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane, at Arsia Mons for further equipment and supplies, including, he mentioned, a potential source of an oxygen-rich rock that they had discovered on the planet. This sounded like a capital idea, so after rummaging through the supplies left in the capsule (including a copy of Le Morte D'Arthur, as if I needed another reminder of where the series could have gone!) we headed east once more, heading for the coordinates Dibbs had given us. Once again it was a fairly uneventful trip, only stumbling across a small band of bushrats (what would the proper collective term be for plantimals?) that were quickly dealt with. We were, however, beginning to see traces of civilization - the remnants of a road that we were indeed following toward Arsia Mons, at least in part. Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane were willing to trade a wide variety of things for oxium. Though we didn't have much on us at the moment (Dibbs only had a little), it was good to know if we were ever short on supplies or ammunition, they'd set us up for the right price. They also mentioned various varieties of berries they'd trade for, with mysterious effects. Calamity Jane would even give us oxium, for enough of the right kind of berry.

Dagnabit, do you have to rub it in my face like that?

Or would, at least, once her supply lines were back in order. It seemed her supplier, a man named Cooter McGee, had gone missing. Dibbs had mentioned this as well, it seemed he had fallen afoul of some raiders from Argyre. Yet another reason to be suspicious of the group that had holed up there. We promised we'd look into what happened to him, and at Jane's instruction, Bill gave us directions to Cooter's place and a stock of oxium to help us deal with the atmospheric conditions during the journey.

Rather, he did once I reloaded a save. I'd somehow managed to skirt past a pair of sextellegers just outside the outpost, and one had snuck through the open door and smacked Bill dead in one shot. Whoops! I made sure to get the drop on the sextellegers first the next time around, and for added safety I shut the door behind me once I was inside. C'mon Bill, you can't die yet, this is how universe-shattering paradoxes are made!

~~~

I called it a session there, as I'd spent a good deal of time in the game at this point. It may not reflect a whole lot of things actually happening, but I think this opening bit of Martian Dreams works really well, a nice and tight means of getting the player into the game. There's a good sense of what's happened in the game world and what I might be able to expect moving forward, several plot threads to follow up on - there are, after all, four groups from the previous expedition to chase after - and one prominent one that gives me a clear direction for at least my immediate steps. The game does a good job of streamlining the open world so it doesn't feel overwhelming in these initial stages, which I feel is necessary when you're still getting the hang of things. I feel like I have options, and even though it's clear to me where the game wants me to go, it manages to do so in a way where it feels like I, the player, am still the one calling the shots as to where to go and what to do next.

I do, however, find myself with a bit of trepidation over the oxium mechanics. On paper, I find the concept an interesting one. It's necessary to keep the party in tip-top fighting condition, but it also doubles as currency, which means as the game goes on and I accumulate a larger stash, I may have to make decisions about how much I can afford to use on buying supplies and how much I need to keep on hand. The fact my currency stash will dwindle as I travel as well means I can't just hoard and use it whenever. There's the possibility of needing to be a bit more judicious about when I take my shopping trips.

I'm sure this is just flavor and won't be of any importance.

In practice, though... I feel like this could be a tough thing to balance properly, economically. Considering a lack of oxium lowers my stats - and by proxy, carrying capacity, ouch! - it'll be important to keep it on hand, but since a lot of the weapons require ammunition, I'll constantly be in need of replenishing bullets, which means spending "money." I don't know how much oxium I'll be able to find (or berries to exchange for it in if I can't find enough), nor do I yet have a good sense of how quickly one goes through a stash of it in travels, and depending on both those factors, it could mean I'm constantly in want of more of it not just to buy things, but to maintain enough of a supply of it to make it to where I want to buy them. And that's assuming I don't care about keeping any on hand to keep my stats up. I suspect I'm just overthinking things and it'll turn out just fine, but I'm seeing some potential for the mechanic to end up a bit frustrating if it's not fine-tuned well. I suppose we'll see as the game goes on.

Finding out what happened to Cooter is my plan for the next session, maybe wandering over to Olympus once that's taken care of. An entire planet's worth of adventure awaits - time to get back to it!

Martian Dreams: Opening Thoughts

I think the best way to encapsulate my initial thoughts on Martian Dreams is via a remark from a conversation I had during the UDIC 25th Anniversary Bash. Unfortuantely I don't remember who said it, so I'm unable to attribute it properly, but it went something along the lines of "Just describing the premise of that game makes me happy."

That's a pretty fair assessment for me as well, all things considered.

Released in 1991, Martian Dreams was the third game to make use of the Ultima VI engine and the second entry in the Worlds of Ultima spin-off series. Or at least it ostensibly was, as the series itself had been renamed to the "Ultima Worlds of Adventure" series, putting the prestigious name of Ultima first. Not that it mattered all that much in the end, on account of the fact it was also the last entry in the series, much to my personal dismay. See, the planned third entry in the series was intended to take an Arthurian bent - how awesome would colliding Britannias have been? Iolo and Merlin swapping stories, Dupre and the Knights of the Round Table questing together, King Arthur and Lord British... so many great opportunities there. But alas, it never came to be.

Ahem, right. I was talking about Martian Dreams.

I like the fact the Avatar has a poster of Ultima VI on the wall.

Once again the game took the tack of throwing the Avatar into an adventure apart from Britannia, via the Orb of the Moons. While Savage Empire took him into a lost world, Martian Dreams sent him on a steampunk adventure on the Red Planet. Considering time travel is involved, it's a little difficult to properly decide where the story truly begins (or a least when), but perhaps the best way to approach it is the Avatar's own perspective - when Dr. Spector shows up on his doorstep one night, ostensibly at the Avatar's own bequest, the two are visited by a mysterious stranger with a package for them. This package contains a photograph of the two of them with several Victorian-era figures, a note signed by Nikola Tesla, and a book on time travel and the Orb of the Moons written by Dr. Spector himself - dated a century earlier. Following the instructions laid out in the book, the two venture to an abandoned laboratory in Colorado, use the Orb, and find themselves in the year 1895. They discover that two years prior, the astronomer Percival Lowell had developed a "space cannon" designed for a trip to Mars, unveiling the project at the Columbian Exposition of 1893. Unfortunately, the cannon discharged a day early - with several prominent figures of the era on board for a tour. And so the Avatar and Dr. Spector join Tesla's rescue mission, for whatever adventures might await them on the next planet over.

Much like Savage Empire, I don't have a lot of previous experience with Martian Dreams. This was largely in part due to the interface issues I had with Ultima VI, which I've previously stated that I had several problems adjusting to at first. However, the premise reminiscent of a Jules Verne novel (adaptations of which I read voraciously as a kid) intrigued me far more than Savage Empire's, and so I was a bit more willing to stick it out just to see what the game had to offer. I've never managed to get very far in the game, but I loved its aesthetic and the ideas behind it. It's one of those games that I quite readily praise even if I'm not entirely sure it's one that ends up clicking with me personally. Although considering how I've managed to get over my initial problems with the Ultima VI interface back during my playthrough of that game, I suspect I'm going to have a much better time of it this attempt around. I'm excited to experience the story firsthand in its entirety, because from what I've seen of it in Let's Plays, it's going to be an excellent adventure.

Well if we knew, we wouldn't have a game, now would we?

But of course I can't get started without delving into the game manuals - yes that has to be plural, as Martian Dreams came with two! The first is Dr. Spector's treatise on time travel and the Orb of the Moons referenced in the game's intro. It does indeed explain how the Orb of the Moons can be used for such a thing, and they are indeed followed properly in the intro. It also features a few descriptions of the various people in the ill-fated 1893 journey, along with those taking part in the 1895 rescue expedition. The second manual describes more of the planet itself, from its geographical features to the wildlife encountered there to what they have managed to figure out of the Martian civilization. It's clear that the team put a fair amount of research into the historical figures they chose to include, there's even a "Further Reading" section for more material on these people. That sort of thing is something I highly appreciate in games that reference historical peoples and places - part of what I love about the Civilization series is trawling through the in-game Civilopedia to learn more about the people and nations I'm playing as. Being able to latch on to some little-known facet of history and having resources at hand to investigate further, provided to me by the game itself - that's the sort of infectious passion for a particular topic that I love to see infused into any form of media.

The manuals also help set the proper tone for the game to follow here. There's no such thing as a perfect reflection of reality when it comes to fiction - what matters is either being able to sufficiently distract the audience from those discrepancies, or putting them in a state of mind where those discrepancies and inaccuracies simply don't matter to them. Martian Dreams is of the latter type, I think. It definitely plays fast and loose with the science involved (when it doesn't outright defy it!), but the lighthearted tone of the manuals and intro sequence help put the player in the right mindset, that this isn't going to be a story about hard science and survival on Mars, but a jovial adventure that happens to be set there. Spector himself even points out some of the strange and extraordinary discrepancies between the modern understanding of Mars and the game's presentation of it! By presenting them in an almost jaunty sort of manner, it helps set the player's expectations of what's to come and make those nonsensical moments easier to accept and meet the game on its own terms.

Origin did "create worlds," after all.

Even the detail work in the manual and opening sequence makes me grin. The illustrations that supplement the descriptions of Martian "plantimals" really help bring the idea of plant-based fauna to life, and the added detail that it's George Washington Carver who does the research into Martian society and its life cycle makes just drives it home all the more - of course he would, he's the botanist! All in all the manuals go a long way to getting the player in the right mood for the game to come, which is exactly what they should be doing. The fact the Origin FX sequence at the beginning uses an image of Mars made me smile, too.

Thus prepared, I popped into the game to create my character proper, chatting with Sigmund Freud in order to define the Avatar's presence on Mars. Even this is a nice touch - who else would be the one to determine how the Avatar would be fleshed out on this particular adventure? Freud began by asking whether the Avatar was closer to his mother or father - I didn't realize this was the 'art thou male or female' question of the game when I first gave Martian Dreams a whirl, which caught me off guard when I answered honestly and ended up female once I fired up the game proper. Freud then stated he did not think the Avatar belonged with them on the trip, and asked how that made him feel. From there came a few more questions: were the Avatar a child again, what would he do when his mother calls him away from playing with his friends? Should they send one out as a scout or stick together as a group when they land on Mars? Were he an animal, would he rather be a fish or a bird? Once again it was interesting to see the traditional "virtue test" framed in a completely different context, and as always, I answered based on the Avatar's previous experiences as best I could.

All that remains now is to dive into the game proper and get to exploring the Martian landscape. Tally ho!

Savage Empire: Closing Thoughts

It's taken me some time to figure out how to pull all my thoughts on Savage Empire in something resemebling a cohesive manner. Some of that probably has to do with the fact my playthrough of the game has been rather... extended, compared to the rest of the series I've played thus far. The game isn't quite as fresh in my head as others when compiling these closing thoughts, especially the early parts of the game. But I think more of it stems from the fact I have very mixed feelings about Savage Empire in general, which is making it a little difficult to figure out how to approach a final post on the topic.

Figuring out where the heck I was - one of my favorite parts of the game

Maybe the best place to start is to say that I did enjoy the game a lot - considerably more than I was expecting to going in. I mentioned in my opening post that "Lost World" type things generally aren't my cup of tea, but even in spite of my lukewarm feelings toward the genre as a whole, I had a wonderful time roaming the valley of Eodon. Especially when I wasn't entirely sure of where I was! The memory of exploring where the teleporters all took me and trying to match that to the features of the game map is still my starkest of Savage Empire, and I honestly don't think I'll be able to replicate that feeling in many other games. Sure, games still come with maps, but I feel like the game worlds they depict are, at least these days, too large to properly capture the level of detail that allows me to pinpoint exactly where I am on it. Savage Empire allowed me to figure out where I was on the map based on geographic features like a particular confluence of rivers or a series of cliffs - all of which were replicated on the map. There was something enriching to me about being able to have that experience with material that wasn't necessarily inside the game itself. I'm hoping I can find similar moments when it comes to Martian Dreams - I know the general layout of Britannia a bit too well to expect the same out of Ultima VII!

Design-wise, I think it's interesting to see how Savage Empire iterated on Ultima VI. As the first entry in the series to re-use the same engine as another, there's a lot to be said on how it took existing material and improved upon it. For example, I think moving the conversation text to where the "game" window is, rather than keeping it where the command input appeared, was a good call. There's no need to be staring at the game world during a conversation, and the larger window helped follow the lengthier conversations a bit better. It was nice to see how other things were improved upon as well - character portraits, for example. The background on each of them changed based on locale and time of day, and even in other circumstances (such as Tuomaxx throwing a skin over the Avatar's head). Talking with Jimmy outside at twilight showed him against a background of a starry sky, while conversing with him in a cave showed him in front of stone. It was a lovely touch that brought a lot of life to the world. So too was the fact each tribe felt distinct - the villages, the character design, every visual aspect of the tribes helped distinguish it from the other tribes in the valley, helping to nail down just how varied they were.

It was nice I could make and use these, but the process was complex.

There was also an increased degree of interactivity with the world itself, it felt like, although part of me feels like it was perhaps too much in some circumstances. While it was nice to see more uses for objects, more ways of combining them, and multiple means of obtaining certain items, I think it might have been a little more than was strictly necessary in some cases. The makeshift rifles and bombs swiftly come to mind - there were so many steps in the process, made a bit more complicated by the limited amount of inventory space available to me, that it felt more like busy work than anything else. I ended up never making a homemade rifle simply on account of that fact. While nice in theory, I think making more complicated interactions between objects didn't work very well in practice.

Then, too, is the fact that the re-use of the engine made some problems even more stark in comparison. Ultima VI let me scroll through inventories, effectively letting me have infinite inventory slots on each individual character, so long as they had the strength to carry it all. Not so in Savage Empire, and I was sorely missing it. Bags and containers because all more precious not just because it helped keep everything organized, but because they effectively expanded the number of items I could carry. This was more a mild nuisance than a serious problem, but it was all the more noticeable because it was clear the engine was capable of handling it in Ultima VI.

The bear. Always the bear.

One other thing stands out to me in terms of mechanics as well, and that's how the game handled character progression. I've seen a few comments elsewhere about how the game feels more like an adventure game with light RPG elements rather than a true RPG. I don't call this a "criticism" because it's not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, but for me personally, it did somewhat hamper my enjoyment of the game. Out of all the characters I took with me on my journey, only Jimmy felt like he ever really got better in terms of leveling and the lack. Most of the other characters were already as far advanced were likely to get over the course of the game without large amounts of dedicated grinding - the Avatar himself included. It never felt like this was a detriment to actually getting anywhere in the game itself, but I found myself missing that sense of my characters improving in their capabilities as the game went on. Even on those occasions when I did get to level up a character (and the rarer occasion when that character was someone other than Jimmy), it felt somewhat lackluster, on account of the fact I never picked anything to improve except strength. I was almost always in need of an increased carrying capacity, and the only way for me to cope with that was with more strength. It all felt rather one-dimensional to me - not that this is unusual territory for Ultima, really, intelligence was useless for practically everybody but the Avatar in Ultima VI for instance, and Ultima II's stat increases were entirely random. I think what stands out to me about Savage Empire in this respect, though, is that it was a choice that didn't really feel like one - sure I could improve dexterity or intelligence, but what point was there to either? (That's another thing,

too - I kept forgetting I even had the option of magic, on account of only one character having the capability, and it wasn't the Avatar.) Strength felt like the absolute right choice every time, and thus I didn't see the need to actually choose one of the three at all. And if I have no reason to choose any option except one, then why give me a choice at all?

In which Sahree sums up the plot.

Since it's my own particular point of interest, and at least part of the point of this blog in the first place, I can't get away from Savage Empire without discussing its story, and I have mixed feelings on that particular subject too. Structurally speaking, it's pretty much the same as the rest of the series up to this: there are a set number of tasks you need to accomplish before you're allowed to enter the endgame, and so long as you accomplish them all, how you go about it doesn't matter. Ultima IV doesn't care if you gather the stones of virtue before achieving Partial Avatarhood in Humility, for instance, so long as it's all done before you dive into the Abyss. Ultima V didn't care when you got the Shard of Falsehood or the Crown of Lord British first, so long as it all happened before you went into Dungeon Doom. Similarly, Savage Empire doesn't care if you help the Disquiqui before the Sakkhra, or the Nahuatla before the Pindiro, so long as you've united all the tribes. And on paper, it's an interesting plot - finding ways to convince each individual tribe to join an alliance, each in their own way, finding a means to meet each tribe on its own terms.

In practice, however... well, it falls into the same problem I have with Mass Effect 2. By making "getting X character to join your team" into not just a significant part of the game's story arc, but the bulk of it, it feels too much like reducing the characters to plot coupons, and that doesn't sit well with me in terms of video games. It's the sort of story I feel works better in a book or movie, and I still can't quite put my finger on why. In whatever medium, it does make the characters in question into a plot device, but somehow that feels more... reductive to me when it happens in a video game. Maybe that's because since I'm actively a part of the story of a video game, it makes me more aware of mechanics and function, and thus easier for my brain to perceive characters used in such a manner as a "mechanic" themselves. Or maybe that's because it feels more like the game is telling me how I'm supposed to think about these people rather than letting me come to my own conclusions, made all the more stark on account of the fact I have a more direct role in the story and the main character as a player of a video game. I don't know - I've mused on it a lot and I still don't have a concrete conclusion.

Even though this made some sense, it felt too easy.

I would have also liked to see a bit more interaction between the tribes. There are some very clear rivalries in the valley, but all the resolution between them happens off screen. It would have been nice, for instance, to see members of other tribes appearing in the villages as you united more of them. Some of the tribal quests felt a bit phoned in, too - one just joins right off, without having to even do anything! I understood the sentiment behind it, as far as the chieftain's motivations went, but even so, it would have felt a bit more fulfilling if she had instead required me to, say, convince half the tribes in the valley to join, just as evidence of my ability or commitment to doing so. Everybody else needed some proof that their needs would be seen to, as is understandable from a leader of a tribe. Why not her, then? I could have done with a little more backstory in a few more places, too. The pacing of a story as open as this is a hard thing to balance when you can't be sure what a player is going to go after when, but having done the Nahuatla quest last, where the bulk of the history of the Valley can be found, a lot of that information was something I would have liked to see hinted at a bit more directly. There were touches of this with the Sakkhra tribe, but practically zilch elsewhere, and I definitely felt its lack when I finally made my way into the underground city of the Kotl and learned just how much went into the background of Eodon and the Myrmidex. Of course, some of these complaints are probably the result of a game world that does feel like it truly breathes, and thus makes minor things like this stand out a little more in contrast - it wasn't a bad story by any means, and those parts of it I enjoyed made me all the more starved for those extra bits of polish.

It's good to see these lessons of virtue framed in a different context.

As far as how the game fits into the story of Ultima as a whole, that's another complicated question. I've heard it said that the game might have received better - indeed, might have been a better game, period - if it didn't try to tie itself to the Ultima series. I can understand the reasoning behind such a statement, and in truth I'm not entirely sure whether I even disagree with it. But I'd like to turn that idea the other way around - would Ultima's story have been better without Savage Empire? I'm inclined to say no. Thematically, this is a chance to see how the Avatar has learned the lessons of virtue Britannia, how he applies them outside the purview of the land that taught these lessons to him. It has the potential to touch upon the idea that the quest of the Avatar really is forever, and the lightly mentioned theme at the end of Ultima V that it's not just Britannia that has a need for an example of virtue. Does Savage Empire accomplish such a thing? I think the case can be made for it, when viewed from the right angle. There aren't really dilemmas of virtue in the same way the Age of Enlightment trilogy presented, but there are moments - the questions during character creation, how the Avatar deals with figures like Darden and Spector, how the player feels in the aftermath, even if there's no direct choice involved. It's not something addressed clearly in the game itself, but I said back during my playthrough of Ultima IV that that particular game is as much the player's story as the Avatar's. In that sense, this is their first chance in the series to explore the lessons of virtue in a context that doesn't necessarily care about those lessons one way or another - is it something that they've taken to heart so well that they hold to them even when they don't see a concrete need to? Maybe it's just me, but I think that, at least from the story of the player, it's an interesting direction to take, and I'm glad the series has something like Savage Empire to do that.

All in all, I think I've come out of this game with a newfound appreciation for it. It's still not going to rank up there with my favorites in the series, I'm not going to be as eager for a reply of it as I am the Age of Enlightenment games. But I think there's something quintessentially Ultima about it. One of the hallmarks of the series, in my mind, is its willingness to experiment, to try new things and go in different directions. It doesn't just take what worked and make more of it - it tries to iterate, find new things that work, ways to improve on what's already working. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but it does, at the very least, end up interesting, and that's part of what's enjoyable about the series for me. And that's exactly what Savage Empire did - it took something that worked, it built on it, it went a different direction, and it tried new things. Some of it I enjoyed, some of it I didn't. And I'm expecting all of that will be improved and experimented on and taken in new directions come Martian Dreams. I have a feeling I'm going to end up seeing Savage Empire the same way I see Ultima II - a transitionary stage, between a spark that served as its source material and the eventual refinement of those ideas to a fine point. There's bound to be some awkward growing pains in the transition - Savage Empire certainly has them. But like Ultima II, despite its flaws, I have a great appreciation for its part in the development of the series as a whole, and an even greater one now that I've played it to completion. Whatever else, I think that's my biggest takeaway, and I'm all the more eager to see how Martian Dreams goes as a result.